Barrack-Room Ballads

(1892)

Dedicated To T. A.

I have made for you a song,
And it may be right or wrong,
But only you can tell me if it's true;
I have tried for to explain
Both your pleasure and your pain,
And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you!

O there'll surely come a day
When they'll give you all your pay,
And treat you as a Christian ought to do;
So, until that day comes round,
Heaven keep you safe and sound,
And, Thomas, here's my best respects to you!

R. K.

You go all your life learning without making any sense of anything. Then all of a sudden, after religion has kept its secrets from your soul and no human being in any occasion could answer the deepest requests of your soul, then and there is Rudyard Kipling's poetry. You go with him through the once-called Indochina, a vast territory dominated by England. He is a fine observer of the soul, of the different and varied characters he found in his life in India. You listen to the local accent and the engines of the trains, and the noise of the crowded streets. You smell the odors and thrill with the colors. And you find your soul and its requests plentifully filled with the humanity of the Indian people.--Submitted by Vitor Antonio de Lima

First collected in 1892, these famous poems by Kipling portray the experiences of soldiers sent around the world to defend the British Empire--all for little pay and less appreciation.--Submitted by Nibel Muhammed

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